| Abdul Fathah, Pappinissery, Kannur |
“I had done nothing other than fishing and ordinary manual work till I was 45…Then I found I can make ships as well”, says Abdul Fathah from Pappinissery, Kannur. The ships he makes are miniature models of Pathemaris, the Arabian sail boats.
Though he had not gone beyond primary school, the pathemaris he makes are perfect in their water-worthiness. The law of buoyancy may be beyond him, but his pathemari floats on an even keel.
The revelation of the ship-making ability came to him five years ago. Since then he has chiseled 15 wooden models of large hulled Arabian sail boats he had seen entering the nearby Azheekal port in his childhood.
With each model his craft improved and with the 15th one, he feels confident to say,”Yeah, we can do anything!”
After he was once reprimanded by his father in his childhood, he left home and became a helper in a pathemari. Once, this pathemari had to float in midsea with no wind for 10 days. “Even now from time to time I dream of being in that vessel with no land in sight,” he says.
“I can sell it to individuals. But then only a few people will see and know it is all in our brain. Yeah, we can do anything!”, he sounds positive.
Courtesy:
P.Venugopal (text), The Hindu, January 22,
2012
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